Writing Arguments

Being able to properly write an argument is a fundamental skill needed in order to obtain an education and it is basically used on an everyday basis. Whether it's trying to get your parents to extend your curfew or convincing an individual to buy a product, argumentative skills are always needed. Over the past few weeks in engineering class we have been writing an argument report for our coaster car that our group has recently built. In this report we were required to talk about why our coaster car was a success and the steps we took in order to construct it the way it currently is. I learned that arguments have to be precised and reasonable. Your claim must be backed up by facts and evidence or else it won't be legitimate. While working on this report with my group, I realized it was quite difficult working and cooperating with others at the same time on a document. It was generally confusing and the experience was new to me, seeing as I've never had an assignment similar to this, however I was able to grasp the concept of it all. I believe this report was difficult because we had trouble planning out who would do what and having all of our paragraphs flow together in the end. This writing report helped improve my skills in working with others. Our group was able to work together being open minded and accepting constructive criticism. This task can help us outside of engineering class. For instance, it helped us improve our social skills and enhanced our cooperation skills and ability to profoundly work as a team. These skills can pertain to us career wise as well! Perhaps we get a job in the business industry, we'd have to use these skills to make sales, persuading the consumer to buy the products. It could also help us when trying to obtain something, whether it is physically an object or an action. For instance, let's say you want your mom to buy you a new iphone, you could use this skill to help persuade her by telling her all of the positive reasons on why she should get you one. Argumentative skills are necessary in life in order for us to actually get what we want or rightfully deserve.

Thanksgiving, What's on Your Table?

Picture this, you're sitting alongside your entire family at a fine wooden table with a large silk cloth draped over it. Upon this cloth is a diversity of home cooked meals varying from mashed potatoes, beans, corn bread, pie, and let's not forget turkey. Of course, it's that time of year again! The aroma of the crisp turkey baking in the oven and the cinnamon essence fills the air. It's Thanksgiving, a blissful time of year about giving thanks for everything we have in life, essentially a roof over our heads, food at our tables, clothes, and a family to share it with. Sure, the things we're thankful for differ depending on who we are and the circumstances we're under. Nevertheless, I'm positive we can all agree on one thing, Thanksgiving is the perfect excuse to eat all the meals you could possible desire! Although, what many of us do not know is many of the meals sitting on our tables have actually been genetically modified! This basically means the ingredients were sent to labs to be modified in order to enhance their nutrients and taste. For example, let's take corn, which is usually on a majority of our tables during this time of year. Transgenic corn is bred to resist weed killers and kill "Bt", a common toxin to corn. This basically means they're monitored and genetically rearranged to grow a certain way. In fact, many of our meals aren't actually organic as we may believe. Sure, as expected we often see everyday store bought fruits and vegetables as "fresh" and untampered with, however most of the time they've been altered. Personally, I feel as though genetically altering vegetables, fruits, and livestock is better because it provides much more, quantity wise and perhaps quality wise. The way I view it as is, there are so many individuals out there struggling to make ends meet, satisfied with even a spoonful of food, genetically modifying food can significantly help them. If we can easily grow much more healthier crops, there will be more to provide for them. Indeed, there are negatives to genetically modified foods, however they are actually more so beneficial than unhealthy.

Coaster Car- Prototyping!

Recently, we've completed our coaster cars in Engineering Class. We completed four different prototypes in order to find the most stable coaster car, with the largest velocity. Although it may not seem like much, prototyping is a lot of work and must be precise. It is a huge part of the designing process, seeing as you must find the best model that completes the objective. The objective of our design was to roll down the ramp successfully in a straight line, traveling as far as possible. This meant we had to rearrange our car in various ways in order to discover which one would be the best.

Our original car was designed to be simple yet effective. We decided to use styrofoam as the chassis of our coaster car because according to Newtons law of gravity, the smaller the mass, the larger the acceleration. We used rubber hubs, 3/16 wooden axles, and straws as the bearings. We placed two wheels on each side of the car and two in the middle. We began prototyping by assigning a task to each member of our group. I, maintained traffic, assuring no one was in the way of our coaster car, enabling it to roll down the ramp freely. Gulsanam, another member in my group, dropped the coaster car down the ramp while Tanzim collected data. Next, we'd place the coaster car on the string, located in the middle of the ramp. The rear of the car would be on the very top of the ramp and it'd then be released, afterwards as the car stopped somewhere along the bottom of the ramp, we'd measure the distance the car traveled. We'd preform this three times for each prototype.

Eventually, we ended up constructing four different cars and ended up with a coaster car that was much wider than the original and on each side of the axles were two wheels, therefore we ended up having 8 wheels on our final design. We felt that having more wheels would stabilize the car and keep it from roaming off the track. This ended up being the best design, seeing as our car stayed on track and rolled the farthest out of our previous prototypes.

Through our four different prototypes we were able to enhance, rearrange, and repair our coaster car. I feel as though personally this project opened up a whole new "light" of engineering. I was able to actually experience how difficult the designing process is and the significance of brainstorming and prototyping. Engineering is a massive part of our everyday life and tools, it is far more simply said than done. It takes a lot more time and effort than I had originally thought. Overall, I feel our group did a good job prototyping and I believe this project was a success.

Hurricane Sandy- The Relief

We have recently been massively impacted by a sudden hurricane sweeping the entire East Coast. Many were left without power and homes have been obliterated, leaving millions struggling to make ends meet. This hurricane known as "Hurricane Sandy" beat records, becoming the largest Atlantic hurricane in history. At least 20 billion dollars of damages have been done, leaving east coasters at a critical state. Personally, I believe no one was actually well prepared for this storm. I suppose we were not anticipating for it to have been as bad as it actually was since it's quite rare around our areas. Reality hit hard after October 31 as the hurricane degenerated. Many had been awoken to the loss of power, the collapsing of trees, which caused sudden outbursts of fires, and harsh winds destroying houses and cable wires. Others were forced to evacuate the comforts of their homes and take shelter elsewhere. It will take quite an extensive time period for us to fully recover from this natural disaster, but I believe if we all work together we can
return to our average lifestyles.

Many efforts are being made to provide relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. However, engineers could have actually have done a few things to prevent the hurricane from having such a strong impact on us. We could have developed a better system of preventing the water from rising up to the land. Perhaps we could have created dams or built a storm surge barrier. This is a flood gate designed to protect the area behind the barrier from being flooded. It would basically be a system of levees and gates acting as a shield, protecting the city. To prepare for any future disasters we could possibly create land based parks with patches of wetlands and tidal salt marshes. These would soak up the water and believe it or not, could protect the coastline from flooding. According to Cassell, three different types of streets could be created, redesigning their structures to protect certain areas from the surges of water. "Type one streets" could be replaced with material able to absorb water. "Type two streets" could be designed to have the water run into marshes meanwhile ponds could collect run off. "Type three streets" would be parallel to the shore, ultimately draining the water back into the ocean. Lastly, we could also create "oyster beds." These are basically piles of oysters that eventually pass away and as they do this, new born oysters begin to form on top of them. Eventually, they pile up and create an oyster bed. Oysters are basically a water filtration system, they can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Not only would the oysters be diminishing the harsh wave action, but they would also filter our water! They would allow marshes to grow around them, which would decrease the chances of flooding!

As you can see, there are numerous things we could do to protect the cities from any future hurricanes. We may not be able to foresee the future, but we are able to control the impact of natural disasters! It may take a vast amount of time, hard work, and a lot of money, but the longer we wait, the more chances we have of once again being at such a vulnerable state. Sooner or later we will have to develop a way to protect our area, let's just hope it's sooner rather than later.


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